The Odle English Bulldogge

The Odle English Bulldogge is without a doubt one of the newest of dog breeds, I am not talking about mixed up breeds and all kinds of crosses we see these days, dogs that their owners claim are, "the new breed", no, the Odle English bulldogge is a breed of dog that is recognized throughout the Unites States as a breed that can stand on its own feet.

The Olde English Bulldogge even has its own breed standard and special breeding programs to help insure that the lines remain pure.

But, how and why did people start this breed?

To answer this we have to look at the history of this magnificent animal.

Centuries and centuries ago, nomads came to the British Isle from Asia and they brought with them the Asiatic mastiff, these dogs were then used in bull baiting, the English started breeding the animals and eventually came up with the Bull dog, so named because of the so called sport that he was used in.

This went on for quite a while until around 1835 when the bull baiting sport became outlawed; when we look at many of the world’s dog breeds, we can see that when their initial usefulness wore out the breed either became extinct or nearly so, many of them being saved only by a few representatives of the breed, with the English bulldog however, this was not so.

When Bull baiting became outlawed breeders took the breed (famous for their aggressiveness) and started to work on breeding the aggression out, for this to happen they bred the English Bull dog to the pug and other short stubby breeds. When it comes to aggression they where highly successful, the result was a lovable dog that was trustworthy with children and other animals; on the other hand, they failed miserably when it came to the overall health of the breed.

Their English Bulldog suffered from many health problems including, hip dysphasia, breathing problems, heat stroke (in 71 degree weather) inability for the males to breed, inability for the females to give birth naturally (because of the puppies large heads), not to mention the fact that these animals could not run and play or do basically anything with their human family, because of its short legs and fat body.

Because of all of these problems a certain man named Mr. Leavitt decided that he was going to make a difference, fed up with the English Bulldog’s problems and finding out the fact that our modern day English bulldog didn’t look anything like the original thing, he decided that he was going to bring the English bulldog back to the way they used to be, and rid the breed of several if not all of their health problems along the way.

Using a line breeding program, with two different lines for crossbreeding later on, Mr. Leavitt started out on his mission, the initial breeds used were the English bulldog, the American bulldog, the American Pit Bull Terrier and the Bullmastiff. The result after just a few generations was a dog that did not have heat stroke problems, the males could breed naturally, the females could give birth naturally, and no aggression, not to mention several other problems that the English Bulldog has; this new breed has been aptly named the " Odle English Bulldogge." This is a breed that can actually go out and run around and play with their family, they can actually be normal dogs.

The Olde English Bulldogge was a big hit and several people decided that they were going to bring the English Bulldog back also, its kind of funny the fact that these people used animals almost entirely from Leavitt lines, but anyway, the breed was a success and several breeding programs have been set up along with the proper recognition from kennel clubs and breed standards set up.

Because some people did not realize what a treasure they had on their hands, some have crossed other breeds as well calling them Olde English Bulldogges, because of this Mr. Leavitt has started his own breed club with his own standard (Its his breed anyway) and renamed his dogs the Leavitt bulldog.

These are truly wonderful animals and I would (carefully) choose an Odle English Bulldogge over the English bulldog any day.